The passage of prophecy selected for today's devotional and extended reading is from the whole of Jeremiah 50. Though I have only given you thirteen verses to read, verses 28-40, I suggest that you also include the entire 50th chapter of Jeremiah for your reading today.

In fact, Jeremiah 50 and 51 go together as one prophecy; however, we'll take a look at Jeremiah 51 for another devotional reading. These two chapters are part of the prophetic ministry of the "priest-prophet" Jeremiah that God had selected, sanctified and ordained even before his conception or birth.

Jeremiah was selected as a Prophet to the nations in eternity past, Jeremiah 1:5. There are other nations that Jeremiah wrote about prophetically in this book that must be understood as they relate to the end times as well.

As we come to Jeremiah 50 we see that this unique Prophet, 2,500 years ago, was actually pre-writing history for our day. Reading through Jeremiah is like reading from the front page of any major newspaper.

Jeremiah introduces this entire chapter, verse 1, as the prophecy from the Lord, given to Jeremiah and focused on Babylon. Remember, when Jeremiah wrote this chapter of prophecy, Daniel and his three Hebrew friends had just been taken into the Babylonian Captivity.

The Jews were facing the threat from Nebuchadnezzar and the mighty Babylonian Army, by which all Jews would be eventually taken into captivity. Jeremiah, before the fact, would tell the people how long they would be in this captivity, and out of Jerusalem, Jeremiah 25:11and 29:10.

In this passage, this Jewish Prophet was revealing the eternal destiny of the Babylonians. Three times in Jeremiah 50 the Lord tells the prophet that Babylon, the literal city of Babylon, will be destroyed, forever.

Biblical Babylon is today modern Iraq. These passages of prophecy pertaining to the total destruction of Babylon have not been fulfilled. In Daniel 5 we see the record of the fall of the Babylonian Empire; however, the city of Babylon was not then destroyed and has not been destroyed yet.

This total destruction of the literal city of Babylon takes place at the end of the seven year Tribulation Period, Revelation 16:17-21, and it is done in one hour, Revelation 18:10, 17 and 19. (See my audio series, "The Babylon Factor".)

Before we leave Jeremiah 50 please look at verse 29. The reason that the Lord totally destroys the city of Babylon and all the Babylonians, the modern-day Iraqi's, is that King Nebuchadnezzar took the implements out of the Temple in Jerusalem and placed them in his idolatrous temple in Babylon, II Chronicles 36: 18-21.

I mentioned that modern-day Iraq is Biblical Babylon thus all that we see happening today in that part of the world is setting the stage for Bible prophecy to be fulfilled, possibly in the near future.

Prophecy becomes very practical as we determine where we are on God's prophetic clock, by studying His prophetic plan, found in His prophetic Word.

PRAYER THOT: As I come to an understanding of the times by studying Your Word, dear Lord, help me to get my heart right and please use me to warn others of the times in which we are living.